This collection posts material pertaining to Pirana Satpanth religion, which is branch of Nizari Ismaili religion and a subset of Shia Islam.


1) The principal deity of this religion is Nishkalanki Narayan (also spelled as Nishklanki Narayan), a Indian name given to Murtza Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam. Murtza Ali is considered as the main god by Shia Muslims.

2) Syed Imam Shah Bawa (full name Syed Imamuddin Abdur Rahim bin Kabirruddin Syed) is considered as founder of Pirana Satpanth. He used the concepts of Hinduism and wove them to the core of values of Islam. The blend was such that outwardly Pirana Satpanth looked like a branch of Hindu religion, which helped in attracting the unsuspecting and poor Hindus towards Satpanth and without their explicit knowledge made them followers of Muslim religion. After a prolonged period of time, when the faith of these people were completely on their religious teachers and they it was ensured that they were cut off from the control of Hindu society, so that they cannot go back to Hinduism, then the process of religious conversion used to begin, leaving no choice for them, but to convert to Islam.

3) Murtza Ali was given the Indian name of Nishkalanki Narayan, in order to present Islam in a way which was easily acceptable by Hindus. Due to this strategy Hindus initially got attracted because of the name which was more like the one amongst themselves. These followers, later on, gradually over the generations, were converted to full-fledged Muslims.

4) For example, Khojas Muslims of India were from the Hindu Lohanas, who were attracted by the name of Nishkalanki Narayan and then after few hundred years today consider themselves as complete Muslims.

5) Similarly large number of people following Pirana Satpanth consider themselves as Muslims, but do not disclose their true identity, as they practice taqiyya (link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiya), a concept of Islam, in which the people hide their true identity, till the time, they consider necessary to attain their true objective. Pirana Satpanthis practice this taqiyya and even are sometimes called as "Guptis", Gupti is a Gujarati/Hindi word meaning “concealers”.


Effect: Due to this there is wide spread confusion, especially, amongst the young generation of Pirana Satpanthis. Many do not know that this is actually a branch of Shia Islam. They making a huge blunder by considering Satpanth to be a branch of Hinduism. Probably they are deceived at the hands of their own religious leaders and preachers. On the other side the proponents of original Satpanth point out that the outwardly Hindu look (like dress, customs, rituals, praying Hindu gods, even keeping Hindu names of new born babies) is only a form of taqiyya. They try to emphasis that the main core of religion is Islam.


Religious Preachers and Leaders: Even the preachers of Satpanth are divided into two groups. One group (link http://pirimamshahbawa.org/) takes the path of abandoning the above mentioned form of taqiyya and openly preaching Satpanth as a branch of Islam with core values of Islam. It aims to completely do away with the outwardly Hindu look. It seems that this line of preaching does not violate the law of land, especially relating to the religious conversions.

The other group (link http://nishklankinarayan.com/) of preachers of Satpanth adopts more aggressive outwardly Hindu look. In times were followers of Satpanth are openly doubting and questioning how Satpanth is branch of Hindu, given more and more information available and history of formation of Satpanth by Imammuddin Abdur Rahim Saiyed alias Imam Shah Bawa alias Imam Shah Maharaj, this group of preacher have adopted more outwardly Hindu look, with the aim of convincing their followers.

However, in spite of their outwardly Hindu look (like calling their god as Nishkalanki Narayan, renaming the sacred village of Pirana, a where tomb of Imammuddin Abdur Rahim Saiyed is located, to name called Prerna Pith, which is used mainly by Hindus, renaming Syed Imam Shah Bawa to Imam Shah Maharaj), they are not in any position or willing to shed the core Islamic values or gods. They are not able to completely shed away Imam Shah, Nishkalanki Narayan or Pirana tomb. In fact they have cleverly ensured that while the outwardly Hindu look becomes more and more Hindu style, the core Islamic value which are centered on Imam Shah Bawa, Nishkalanki Narayan and Pirana are not put at danger. This is a very dangerous line adopted as they can be easily accused and proved to be indulging in clandestine and covert religious conversion without clearly informing the follower that Satpanth religion is a branch of Islam. This is against the law of land attracting very harsh punishment.


Due to the confusion created as mentioned above coupled with the two groups of preachers of Satpanth, the typical follower of Satpanth religion remains confused, not knowing what the truth is. The result is that many clashes, some even violent, have been reported between the two groups. Many Court cases and Police complaints are filed against each other.


The Truth: This collection tries to keep facts before the people and let the people decide for themselves how Satpanth religion and Nishkalanki Narayan religion is a branch of Islam religion.